[WS:] I said "social conditions" not "poverty." Poverty alone is not
necessarily a detriment to education. In my travels in Africa and Asia I've
seen many schools (most of them small fee-based establishments) among the
most squalid conditions imaginable - so this indicates the demand for
educational services, even if poor people have to pay money for them.

I think it is certain aspects of the US culture that are detrimental to
education - anti-intellectualism and get-rich-quickly mentality being chief
among them. They are detrimental for everyone, but they are particularly
detrimental for people in a lower socio-economic status, who do not have
bail-out opportunities of the upper echelons (c.f. Bush junior.)

My point is that schools can do very little if students - a product of the
aforementioned aspects of the US culture - do not avail themselves of
learning. As they say "you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make
him drink / you can bring a whore to culture, but you cannot make her
think."

>> On Jan 28, 2011, at 5:41 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
>> > Miles: "The problem we need to focus on is poverty, not the school
> system."
> >
> > [WS:] Was not the school system - or rather education - supposed to be
> the
> > solution of poverty? And as such, did not it fail rather miserably?
> >
> >
> > But I agree with you - the problem is the social conditions that make
> > students unavailable for learning. Focus on the school system is getting
> it
> > all backwards.
>> Wait a minute, guys - poverty is very important, but schools are too.
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